Executive Summary
Over the years, IT environments have become more complex and more heterogeneous due to diverse customer needs and rapid innovation in the IT industry.As a result, it is often time-consuming and expensive to manage IT systems that involve multiple vendors and multiple technology platforms.
To address this issue, Microsoft delivers interoperability by design.
Microsoft’s approach to interoperability helps customers proactively manage IT environments so that IT can deliver the level of services needed to support the business and adjust to meet the evolving business needs of the organization.
What is System Integration?
It’s all about reducing complexity and cost, enabling a high performance workforce, and optimizing the IT infrastructure.Systems integration is:
- Simplifying IT operations forasset management, capacity management, change management, configuration management, data protection management, and security update management.
- Supporting cross-platform solutionswithBMC Patrol, CA Unicenter, IBM Tivoli, HP OpenView, Microsoft® Operations Manager, and Novell ZENworks.
- Promoting best practicessuch as IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) management procedures, service modeling, and other architectural guidance.
- IntegratingIT environments with products such as Microsoft Content Management Server, Operations Manager, Systems Management Server, Virtual Server, Windows Server® Update Services, and Windows® Storage Server.
Microsoft Supports Systems Integration
For customers who manage heterogeneous ITenvironments, Microsoftdelivers system integration four ways:
- Products: Providing innovative features and technologies such as unified management consoles, operations management packs,product connectors, extensibility tools, virtualization technologies, and native support for XML.
- Community:Working together with customers, partners, and competitors to develop integrated IT solutions that meet customers’ shared interoperability needs, encourage technology innovation, and promote competition in the IT industry.
- Access:Licensing technology assets to and from other companies and offering key Microsoft technologies including the Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) Image Format Specification and 38 Web services standards under the Open Specification Promise (OSP).
- Standards:Supporting industry and technical standards for information and management systems and actively participating with leading standards-setting organizations to promote technology adoption.
Microsoft Supports Standards
- Microsoft products and technologies support hundreds of technical standards and specificationssuch as DNS, HTTP, IPv4, IPv6, ISO/IEC 20000, SOAP,TCP, UDP, and XML.
- Microsoft is actively engaged with more than 100 national and international standards-setting organizations including ECMA, ETSI, OASIS, OMA, IEEE, IETF, ISO/IEC JTC1, ITU, and W3C.
- Microsoft engineers have authored or co-authored dozens of industry standardsand specifications such as SML, SOAP, WSDL, WS-Addressing, WS-Management, WS-Management Catalog, and WS-MetadataExchange.
- Microsoft is working with industry to define a new generation of software and Web services based on eXtensible Markup Language (XML).
Helping Customers Integrate and Manage Heterogeneous IT Environments
- Microsoft System Centeris the Microsoft family of systems management products and solutions focused on providing IT professionals with tools and knowledge to help them manage their IT infrastructure. Microsoft System Center is extensible andprovidesintegration across products and technologies to extend management capabilities to the enterprise, helping heterogeneous environments work better together.
- The Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI) is a commitment from Microsoft and its partners to deliver self-managing dynamic systems so that IT teams can better capture and use knowledge to design more manageable systems and automate ongoing operations, resulting in reduced costs and improved organizational efficiencies. The DSI is focused on capitalizing onpartner solutions and industry standards to ensure interoperability.
- Service Modeling Language (SML) is a common standard for describing system information in XML formats to simplify management across heterogeneous IT environments. The SML working group includes BEA, BMC, Cisco, Dell, EMC, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and Sun.
For More Information, Visit:
- Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI)
- Microsoft Servers for IT Operations
- Microsoft System Center
System Integration
Customer Use Cases / Microsoft Solutions / Standards Supported in Microsoft Products / For More Information, Visit
Run virtual Linux distributions on Windows Server / Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2, available as a free download, is the server virtualization technology engineered for the Microsoft server product portfolio. Microsoft also offers virtual machine add-ins for Linux and a technical product support model for Linux guest operating systems running on Virtual Server 2005 R2.With Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition, customers can run up to four virtual operating systems on one physical server at no additional cost. Add-ins are available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Red Hat Linux, and Novell SUSE Linux. / VHD / 1)
2)
Deliver relevant software and updates to users of Microsoft and third-party applications / Systems Management Server (SMS) provides a comprehensive solution for change and configuration management for systems running on Windows Server. With SMS, organizations can provide relevant software and updates to users quickly and cost-effectively. / BITS, DNS, HTTP, IP, SQL, TCP, WebDAV, XML / 1)
default.mspx
Ensure application compatibility with Windows Vista™ and Windows Update / MicrosoftApplication Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) 5.0is a lifecycle management tool that assists in identifying and managing application portfolios, reducing the cost and time involved in resolving application compatibility issues, and helping users quickly deploy Windows Vista and Windows Update.With Microsoft Compatibility Exchange in ACT 5.0, customers and independent service vendors can share information about their own application compatibility testing results. / 1)
windowsvista/appcompat/tools.mspx
2)
windowsvista/appcompat/act5feat.mspx
Improve IT infrastructure and enable business process efficiencies / The Microsoft Infrastructure Optimization Model is designed to help customers understand and subsequently improve the state of their IT infrastructure and describes what that means in terms of cost, security risk, and operational agility.The Infrastructure Optimization Model has been developed using industry best practices and Microsoft's own experiences with its enterprise customers. / ITIL (ISO/IEC 20000) / 1)
infrastructure/datasheet.mspx
Manage heterogeneous IT systems / Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) Management Packsprovide intelligent operations management for a wide variety of server applications. Management packs monitor a wide array of server health indicators and send alerts in response to critical events that require administrator intervention. To provide the best possible management of applications, Microsoft encourages application providers who have sophisticated knowledge of the server applications to develop the management packs. / HTTP, IP,SOAP, TCP, WS-*, WSDL, XML, XSD / 1)
evaluation/managepacks/default.mspx
2)
prodtechnol/mom/mom2005/catalog.aspx
Connect Microsoft Operations Manager with other management platforms / Microsoft Operations Manager Connector Framework (MCF) is a Web service–based technology for connecting MOM to any third-party management platform. It enablesfull bidirectional alert forwarding and synchronization for increased management capabilities for medium and large enterprises with heterogeneous environments. / HTTP, IP, SOAP, TCP, WS-*, WSDL, XML, XSD / 1)
evaluation/mcf/default.mspx
Automate and integrate system administration tasks / Windows PowerShell (formerly Monad)is a new command line shell and task-based scripting technology that helps increase administrator productivity by providingIT professionalswith comprehensive management and automation of system administration tasks. Windows PowerShell includes numerous system administration utilities, consistent syntax and naming conventions, and improved navigation of common management data such as the registry, certificate store, or Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). / .txt, HTML, XML / 1)
server2003/technologies/management/powershell/default.mspx
Backup data from Windows Server–based systems to disk or tape / System Center Data Protection Manager(DPM)delivers continuous data protection for Microsoft application and file servers using seamlessly integrated disk and tape media. DPM allows the management of logical groupings of data from a single user interface—delivering Microsoft Exchange Server, SQL Server™, Office SharePoint®, and file data, mixed within a single policy, to any combination of disk and tape protection. / DNS, HTTP, IP, TCP / 1)
center/dpm/default.mspx
Develop and implement IT solutions for heterogeneous IT environments / Windows Server System Reference Architecture (WSSRA) is a detailed reference architecture, tested and proven in labs, that yields valuable implementation guidance for meeting the requirements of an enterprise. Customers can use this guidance to build highly available, secure, scalable, manageable, and reliable enterprise infrastructure. By following the recommendations in the WSSRA documentation, an organization can quickly and efficiently plan, build, and operate an infrastructure to support its long-term business needs. / HTTP, IP, SOAP, TCP, WS-*, WSDL, XML, XSD / 1)
itsolutions/wssra/raguide/default.mspx
Share files and manage block-level access to networked storage devices / Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 (WSS)includes support for protocols such as server message block(SMB), network file system(NFS), AppleTalk, and NetWare, which allows data to be shared among different platforms.WSS is fully compatible with server management tools such as Microsoft Systems Management Server, IBM Tivoli, and HP OpenView, as well as popular antivirus software.WSS can integrate with storage area networks (SANs) and can serve as a gateway to multiple-vendor SANs. Remote administration is provided through Microsoft ActiveX®remote desktop protocol (RDP) and Java RDP client support. / AppleTalk, IP, iSCSI, Kerberos protocol, NFS, RDP, SMB, SMI-S, TCP, VHD, WS-Management / 1)
serversystem/wss2003/productinformation/features/default.mspx
Improve the stability and reliability of Windows-based environments / Microsoft Operations Framework provides operational guidance that organizations can use to achieve mission-critical system reliability, availability, supportability, and manageability of Microsoft products and technologies. With MOF guidance, organizations will be able to assess current IT service management maturity, prioritize processes of greatest concern, and apply proven principles and best practices to optimize management of the Windows Server platform. / ITIL (ISO/IEC 20000) / 1)
itsolutions/cits/mo/mof/default.mspx
The information contained in this document relates to pre-release software product, which may be substantially modified before its first commercial release. Accordingly, the information may not accurately describe or reflect the software product when first commercially released. This data sheet is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. / Microsoft Corporation • One Microsoft Way • Redmond, WA 98052-6399 • USA